Margaret Hamilton, as the Wicked Witch of the West, got melted near the end of The Wizard of Oz, muttering “Wotta world, wotta world…” as the water turned her into a pile of clothing and a pointed witch’s hat. I’m not being melted at the moment, but I’m really conflicted about something, and I need to vent.
Facebook recently instituted “Groups” that, I believe, they intended to mimic those found on Usenet or in Google or Yahoo! Groups. Unfortunately, their execution of the idea falls woefully short of how groups in social networking ought to work. This is not a new concept to Facebook, as they have a history of privacy lapses and stupid changes that backfire on them. It remains to be seen whether Facebook Groups will crash and burn or not. However, what I see doesn’t make me feel very good about it. (Note: I’ve particularly tried to refrain from naming the group below…it would be easy for you to find out but it’s not important to my point so skip it, please, if you could…)
First, the creator of a Facebook group can add any of their Facebook “friends” to the group, without their permission and without prior notification. This is seriously not good. If someone were, for example, to create a Facebook group dedicated to child pornography, and add a whole load of people to it, there would be no recourse. You could report the group, and such a group would certainly be closed down. However, your presence in the group might raise some constabulary eyebrows. And other than immediately removing yourself from the group, there is nothing you can do about it.
Second, this group is intended to “shadow” a Usenet group that I used to follow. Earlier this year, I got out of the habit of following it as SPAM™, spew, and drivel seemed to be driving the interesting posts out. Now I’ve been added to the Facebook group, and while the SPAM™ is not there (as the group is closed) there’s a lot of stuff there that I don’t particularly need to see. This is not to disparage friends who contribute to the group, either on Facebook or on Usenet. But I’ve moved on. I already have enough time-sucks on line without another one.
Third, there is no filtering system, as there is in most Usenet newsgroup readers. So if someone decides to add one of their friends, who writes posts that you would rather not see, you have no protection against receiving that person’s posts or comments in your Facebook reading. I prefer filtering to be done online, rather than in my head.
Fourth, you can be added as an administrator to the group, again without your permission. What this means is that unless you dig down to find the box to uncheck in your “Settings”, you end up getting an email notification every time someone asks to be added to the group, as well as any number of other activities. I had a seriously stuffed Facebook folder in Thunderbird until I figured out how to stop the torrent.
Now I’m conflicted. I do not want to seem anti-social. The fact that this group is composed mostly of “Friends” (in Facebook-ese—I prefer to call them “connections”) means that if I removed myself from the group, in some deep cavern of my being I would feel as though I’d abandoned or rejected friends. No one likes to do that. But, folks, it’s all a psychological trick by Facebook to make you feel guilty about ending any connection you get on the networking site. In actuality, while I am friendly with almost all these people, and would gladly buy them a root beer if we were in a bar together, I have not met most of them in meatspace. I probably won’t meet most of them in meatspace, ever.
But, will they think I’m antisocial if I remove myself from the group? Already one member (added willy-nilly) has been described by other members as being enraged by being added without permission. Will people say that I’m unreasonably grumpy if I leave? I shouldn’t be concerned about what other people think of me or any actions I take (that are legal or moral), but still…
I harbour an unreasonable resentment that I have unwillingly and unwittingly been put in the unhappy position of either controlling my own online presence and seeming to be antisocial, or having to smile and ignore this stuff that has started to cascade into my Facebook feed.
What to do, what to do? Wotta world…wotta world…!